Scottish Conservative MP Harriet Cross has urged new environment secretary Angela Eagle to make backing British agriculture an immediate priority, warning that farmers are facing mounting financial and regulatory pressures.
Cross, the MP for Gordon and Buchan, has written to the new secretary of state for environment, food and rural affairs calling for urgent action to ease the strain on farms, agricultural businesses and food and drink manufacturers. She warns that without a change in direction more businesses could be forced to close.
She says farmers are contending with a series of cost pressures, including Labour’s Family Farm Tax and Family Business Tax, higher National Insurance contributions, increases to the National Living Wage, changes to double‑cab pick‑up taxation and the planned fertiliser tax.
In her letter, Cross calls on Eagle to take five immediate steps:
- Scrap the Family Farm Tax and Family Business Tax.
- Defend farming freedoms in any future UK‑EU agreement.
- Close the so‑called 'flag loophole'.
- Strengthen biosecurity measures.
- Meet urgently with representatives from the pig sector.
She has also invited the new Defra secretary to visit Gordon and Buchan to meet farmers and agricultural businesses affected by recent policy changes.
Commenting, Cross said: “This urban‑centric Labour government has left farmers in my constituency struggling to keep their heads above water.
“Their damaging policies have piled pressure on an industry that is already battling rising costs and mounting challenges, leaving many family farms questioning their future and putting our food security at risk.
“Unless the new environment secretary changes course, we run the real risk of even more farms, agribusinesses and food and drink manufacturers closing for good.”
She added that she hoped Eagle would accept her invitation to visit the north‑east to hear directly from farming families and businesses about the challenges facing the sector.
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